Ghostbusters Reboot Director Knows Why His Movie Failed Miserably

Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot, later retitled Answer the Call, was supposed to launch a new franchise and it had the backing of the original cast, which was a big selling point. But many were skeptical from the start with the idea of an all- female cast driving around in the Ecto-1 and kicking some ghost ass. A lot has been said about the movie since its release, but now Paul Feig is speaking up and stating that he now knows the reason why the movie has been deemed a box office failure.

Paul Feig recently sat down with Vulture to discuss his version of Ghostbusters and what exactly he feels went wrong and kept the movie from becoming a box office sensation. In the end, the director believes that a movie that was supposed to be fun and a celebration of the original franchise became too politicized, which Feig regrets to this day. Feig explains.

"I think it kind of hampered us a little bit because the movie became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, 'What the f$ck? We don't wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a f$ckin' movie.' ... It was a great regret in my life that the movie didn't do better, 'cause I really loved it. It's not a perfect movie. None of my movies are perfect. I liked what we were doing with it. It was only supposed to be there to entertain people."

Though the movie did have many detractors, a lot of people enjoyed the movie and were looking forward to seeing what the cast could do in a sequel. The chances of a sequel happening are slim to none.

Despite all his frustration, Paul Feig seems to have kept enough perspective on the movie to joke that beating Star Wars and Captain America at the Kids' Choice Awards was a highlight of his year, saying, "The teens are just watching it, not bringing all the baggage." Paul Feig is right, most audiences don't want to go to a cause, they just want to watch a movie, especially a Ghostbusters movie. So, while there were camps of those for and against the movie, the majority of movie-going audiences aware of the controversy obviously felt it better to just avoid the all-female reboot altogether.

Ghostbusters helmed by Paul Feig and starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, was a major disappointment last summer, specifically in relation to cost. The project cost a whopping $144 million to produce, and it made only $229m worldwide. While the movie did a decent $128m domestic, it flat-lined overseas where the Ghostbusters franchise isn't as popular. It didn't even play in China, due to their issues concerning paranormal and supernatural elements.

While everybody was initially on board with the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd has since publicly called out Paul Feig for spending way too much money on the movie, saying that the movie could have been a bigger success had the budget been tighter. Aykroyd also claims that Feig didn't listen to him and the producers when they said that the movie needed extra scenes, resulting in costly reshoots. Dan Aykroid went as far as to say that Paul Feig won't be welcome on the Sony lot any time soon. You can read what Paul Feig had to say about the failure of 2016's Ghostbusters reboot via Vulture.